1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate to the field of microprocessor systems, and more specifically, to resource mapping.
2. Description of Related Art
Resource mapping involves allocating address spaces for resources used in a microprocessor platform. Typical resources include firmware and hardware devices that occupy address space on the processor addressing range.
Existing techniques for resource mapping typically result in undesirable consequences. Memory ranges reserved for auxiliary devices such as on-board or add-in devices may not correspond to actual data. The actual address ranges are usually much less than the allocated ranges, leading to unused address space. When mapping the resource reservation above the physical memory in the system, the underlying chipset or target operating system may not be able to handle the mapping of resources above the 4 GB limit of physical memory. As more and more platforms are populated with physical memory approaching the 4 GB address space, competition of address space between the physical memory and other resources may lead to “stealing” of memory from the platform.